TimmyHIs public education failing students?
June 20th 2008 05:50
Public education does an adequate job of educating a majority of students. But the system also allows for many teenagers to slip through the net. Because of the internet and other technologies, many students are now outpacing their teachers and administrators in terms of the “informal learning” they are doing online outside the classroom. Everything is changing except K-12 public schools.
A recent study involving a group of European and American universities has found that the public – private education gap is growing. In order to encourage students and parents back to public education systems, they must be updated to include a greater focus on emerging technology and access to information.
The education experience needs to become more individualised and customised for each student. Regardless of where they learn (home, traditional school, online) or how they learn (games, books, podcasts) groups of children sitting around cramming for the same exams is not education. In reality, if students were given the exact exam they were going to sit, a day or more in advance, it would encourage them to go and learn the material until it became airtight knowledge.
At present, public education is not goal oriented. The same grading systems and having students producing the same works of regurgitation each year is not appropriate for preparing them for the world of work. Measurement has to change to factor in new types of skills and take a more holistic approach. Students should be able to design their own outcomes with directional assistance from institutions of learning.
If this is to occur, the role of teachers will and must change. As knowledge becomes more broadly available through technology, teachers are no longer the all-knowing beings they once were. Instead, they should become more like "guides" or "facilitators" of learning. Some teachers would continue to add to the knowledge base as content creators, but the idea is that knowledge is more distributed, and more people, including students, can add to our collective knowledge base.
Education should be about preparing students to be adaptive as opposed to having one job or career for the rest of their lives. The new skills needed for the 21st century like filtering/information literacy, project management, personal branding, thinking globally and the ability to adapt to rapid change should vital parts of the education system. It has to be about more than just mastering subject matter or even learning one specific vocation.
A recent study involving a group of European and American universities has found that the public – private education gap is growing. In order to encourage students and parents back to public education systems, they must be updated to include a greater focus on emerging technology and access to information.
The education experience needs to become more individualised and customised for each student. Regardless of where they learn (home, traditional school, online) or how they learn (games, books, podcasts) groups of children sitting around cramming for the same exams is not education. In reality, if students were given the exact exam they were going to sit, a day or more in advance, it would encourage them to go and learn the material until it became airtight knowledge.
At present, public education is not goal oriented. The same grading systems and having students producing the same works of regurgitation each year is not appropriate for preparing them for the world of work. Measurement has to change to factor in new types of skills and take a more holistic approach. Students should be able to design their own outcomes with directional assistance from institutions of learning.
If this is to occur, the role of teachers will and must change. As knowledge becomes more broadly available through technology, teachers are no longer the all-knowing beings they once were. Instead, they should become more like "guides" or "facilitators" of learning. Some teachers would continue to add to the knowledge base as content creators, but the idea is that knowledge is more distributed, and more people, including students, can add to our collective knowledge base.
Education should be about preparing students to be adaptive as opposed to having one job or career for the rest of their lives. The new skills needed for the 21st century like filtering/information literacy, project management, personal branding, thinking globally and the ability to adapt to rapid change should vital parts of the education system. It has to be about more than just mastering subject matter or even learning one specific vocation.
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Comment by Anonymous
S. Sims
Comment by Richard Cramp
Big Fish, Small Fish: The Parenting Pond
I can assure you that the lack of adequate ICT's in the classroom is not limited to the public education sector. However, I do agree that Y-generation students are out stripping teachers in their 'informal learning' and need to be taught how to properly evaluate the information that they can o readily access on the www. I also agree that some traditional pedagogical practices need to be revisited to in order to accommodate the less linear learning style of our digital native students, and that teachers do need to adopt a more facilitative approach in the classroom. Yet, there are some things that just need to be taught .
My next point is that you should be very careful in citing research from the USA and UK to support educational arguments involving Australia. Both countries have very poor education systems. You only have to look at their PISA scores, which place them amongst the lower performing countries globally, whereas Australia has a comparatively sound approach to education (we are in the top four).
Furthermore, any argument that involves the imposition of high stakes testing, and associated assessment strategies, by state authorities cannot be used to broadly justify statements that public sector education is letting students down in comparison to private sector education. Both are subject to the same rule, policies and procedures. I do, however, agree that high stakes testing and assessment as implemented in NSW (the HSC) and Victoria (the VCE) do not do justice to the needs of Y-generation students facing an uncertain future. Queensland's OP system would seem to be a better approach but it too has its limitations.
You are right teachers do need to be more adaptive but again they are also restricted by state education authorities, such as the NSW Board of Studies, through the out moded syllabuses that are they are expected to implement. Hopefully, current attempts to generate a National curriculum may pioneer the changes that we so desperately need; but I will not hold my breath because the state authorities must first learn to look beyond political expedience to what is right for the child we must educate.
I say this as a teacher of some 30 years, with a specialization in ICT's, and having taught K-2 in a number of educational systems (public, private and interstate).